Confederacy of Vulcan
The Confederacy of Vulcan was the Vulcan state ( }}), and one of the five founding Federation member states. ( ) Prior to the Founding of the Federation, the Confederacy was a major interstellar power throughout what later became the core Federation worlds, and participated in a long-standing rivalry with the Andorian Empire. :The name Confederacy of Vulcan comes from the FASA RPG books and was affirmed in the novel ''Kobayashi Maru. It was called the Planetary Confederation of 40 Eridani in the Star Fleet Technical Manual and Star Charts supplied the name Confederacy of Surak. The Vulcan state is also commonly referred to simply as Vulcan.'' History :See main article: 'Vulcan history'. Government and Politics The Confederacy of Vulcan was governed by the Vulcan Council, a group of just seven ministers, each responsible for a different ministry. Elections were held every ten years, with candidates selected logically on their merit for the job. Other governing bodies were the High Assembly and the Vulcan High Command, with the Vulcan High Command's Administrator functioning as head of government, governing with the approval of the Council. The head of government also took the title of Vulcan First Minister. ( ; }}; }}) It was also known that their state was governed by an oligarchy of several prominent families on Vulcan. ( ) :The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans'' establishes the Minister of State as the "first among equals" leader of Vulcan Council; this would complement the title of First Minister leading the Council given in Star Trek: Enterprise. The affirms that T'Pau is the new Vulcan head of government following the Syrrannite Reformation in 2154. }} then established T'Pau as First Minister, while later referred to her as Administrator. The Good That Men Do also establishes that T'Pau is head of both the civilian government and Vulcan military, while Beneath the Raptor's Wing later confirmed the High Command as the military branch of the government. Thus, T'Pau as head of state of Vulcan appears to hold to two titles: Administrator of the High Command, and First Minister. The seven ministries were the Ministry of State, Defense, Security, Trade, Thought, Science, and Health. Each was maintained various agencies to carry out its functions. :The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans'' does not include a Foreign Minister as described in }}, instead the position of Minister of State incorporates diplomatic duties.'' In matters such as legislation and debate on important issues were handled by three different bodies. One such body is the Proposal Group which exists alongside the Rectification Group and the hr'Khash'te; also known as the Expunging Group. The Expunging Group exists only to remove or veto laws which provide an easy manner for change. The other two groups require a large majority to pass legislation with expunction requiring only one-fourth of the body's two thousand six members to remove a law. The general idea of this would be that a good law should require a large consensus with bad laws being easy to stop and change. Though a very logic way to determine legislation, it can be exploitable depending on the many political groups that are in power on the Vulcan homeworld. Typically, debate is often a venue for discussion on the subject with a later vote on the Referendum itself. Normally, laws that are removed are done so quickly, however, a piece of legislation that widely affects Vulcan can take a week of discussions to take place. This would remain in effect until the viewers indicate that the time for debate is over and voting is made by the electorate. Votes can often be swayed by what is said in the debates themselves. The document that binds the Vulcan people to the Federation is known as the Articles of Association, also referred to as the Articles of Federation. ( ) Groups Government *Vulcan High Command **Vulcan Space Council *Vulcan Council *Vulcan Advisory Council *Vulcan Ministry of Information *Vulcan Guard *V'Shar *Vulcan Space Program *Vulcan National Merchant Fleet *Vulcan Colonial Protectorate *Vulcan Science Academy *Vulcan Science Directorate *Vulcan Medical Directorate *Vulcan Genome Registry *Vulcan Mining Institute Subgroups *Vulcan Isolationist Movement *V'tosh ka'tur *Yhri *Adepts of T'Pel *Followers of T'Vet *Followers of T'Shan *Kolinahru Diplomatic Relations *Coalition Compact *Coalition of Planets *Tau Ceti Accords *Territorial Compromise *Treaty of Ka'Tann **Ka'Tann Conference Military The military wing of the Vulcan government was overseen by the Ministry of Defense, one of the ministries of the Vulcan Council. The Minister of Defense served as the commander in chief of this division who supervised the deployment of the Vulcan Defense Force which served as the naval branch of the military. The V'Ket served as the army branch of the military but by latter era it served as a more ceremonial branch that made use of the lirpa instead of the phaser. They were often deployed to guard religious sites or attend special functions. ( ) In the 22nd century, before the Syrrannite Reformation, the Vulcans were noted for the use of highly trained commando units that were used to storm enemy positions. ( ) By the 2270s, the Vulcans were noted as retaining their space service and found service within the Federation to be beneath them. ( ) The V'Kor served as the police force on the planet Vulcan but due to the fact that there was virtually no crime within their society, these investigators often found themselves attached to investigations off world. ( ) The protection of the Vulcan Council itself was left in the hands of the Vulcan Guard. ( ) Society and Culture During the formation of the Confederacy of Vulcan, one of the ruling principles that guided the government would be the Theorems of Governance created by . This, combined with the six virtues of Surak's teachings helped reconcile the tradition with the logical imperatives of governance. (LUG: The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans) Within the society itself, there is a high level of participation in civil affairs with 98% of Vulcans having attained some sort of public office by the time they were two hundred. This means that the Vulcan people are highly attentive on government matters and take active part in the voting system to determine whether a certain law is beneficial or detrimental to Vulcan. ( ) Artifacts *Kir'Shara *Stone of Gol *Vulcan's Glory Territory It was well-established that early Vulcan colonization efforts were confined to the area closest to the Romulan Neutral Zone. ( ) Planets *Vulcan (planet) *Kethri *T'Khut *Mevet *Cor Caroli IX *Merak *Harmony *Calanara Star Systems Conflicts *Vulcan Schism *Andorian-Vulcan territorial conflicts *Babel Crisis *Unification Category:Federation member states Category:States Category:Alpha and Beta Quadrant states